Since its launch in December 2023, Intersect has played a central role in Cardano’s transition into the age of Voltaire. It has supported:

• Facilitation and stewardship of two transformative Cardano upgrades; Chang and Plomin

• The creation of Cardano’s first constitution

• Ongoing facilitation of the 2025 roadmap and budget process

• Supporting DReps and constitutional committee members

• Community engagement through hubs, working groups, and regional events

Initial funding from seed-funders Input Output | Global and EMURGO, along with membership fees from over 1800 individuals and 50 enterprise members, sustained operations through 2024. To continue this work in 2025, Intersect requests ₳20 million (equivalent to $10 million at a $0.50 conversion rate).

This funding will ensure Intersect can:

• Maintain and govern Cardano’s core open source repos

• Facilitate the full governance cycle: vision, roadmap, and budget

• Coordinate upgrades, security, and community-wide releases

• Provide infrastructure for committee elections and onboarding

• Expand community hubs and support local engagement

• Improve participation tooling and membership benefits

• Support the growth of new MBOs and open-source initiatives

As Cardano enters the age of Voltaire and governance moves from a handful of organizations to the broader community, the need for processes that support decentralized decision-making has become both clear and urgent.

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While a constitution and on-chain voting provide the formal structure, a third element is emerging: voluntary, community-aligned coordination. Member-based initiatives like Intersect exist not to direct the network, but to help lower the barriers to participation, create space for collaboration, and support the processes that allow a global, decentralized ecosystem to function effectively. In 2024, over 5,000 individuals engaged through Intersect - demonstrating the growing demand for tools and structures that empower, rather than centralize.

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Key processes that now require ongoing support and facilitation include:

• Cardano node open source stewardship: managing the core repositories via an open-source, neutral, nonprofit structure.

• Governance enablement: coordinating social processes for pre-vote consensus and facilitating off-chain deliberation for what goes on-chain via committee recommendations.

• Ecosystem upgrades: as with the Chang and Plomin upgrades, coordinating SPOs, dApps, and exchanges for smooth upgrades and hard forks.

• L1 security: maintaining Cardano’s layer 1 security through community-led coordination and security policy execution.

• Treasury management: supporting transparent allocation and community-led auditing of treasury funds, along with legal and operational management through entities like CDH.

• Community participation and collaboration: strengthening meaningful engagement across regions by creating accessible entry points, encouraging shared initiatives, and fostering peer-to-peer support, and always with a Cardano-first mindset. We prioritize the needs of the Cardano ecosystem and its members, supporting local and global efforts that help Cardano thrive from within.

• Institutional growth: recognizing the need and value of having multiple member-based organizations (MBOs) serving the Cardano ecosystem, Intersect intends to support and enable the emergence of new institutions, associations, and collectives - both to distribute and expand Cardano’s coordination capacity.

• Vision and roadmap development: facilitating a long-term vision and annual roadmap aligned with community priorities.

• Constitutional committee: supporting elections and championing the broader community to participate. Includes assisting the committee in fulfilling its complex voting duties.

• Governance pathways: supporting orientation, onboarding, and resource access for DReps, constitutional committee members, and anyone looking to actively engage in Cardano’s governance.

Cardano’s strength lies in its community’s ability to self-organize. Intersect exists to help coordinate that effort - openly, transparently, and without becoming a point of control.

Intersect exists to provide structure, transparency, and coordination across Cardano’s decentralized governance processes.

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We’ve got more to do here and, in 2025, Intersect will build upon its 2024 foundations and learnings by:

• Maturing Cardano’s open source development framework, including the paid open source model and incubation program

• Facilitating ecosystem-wide upgrades and transparent pre-governance processes

• Supporting on-chain governance processes through committees and working groups

• Helping define a community-led Cardano 2030 vision and 2026 roadmap

• Delivering constitutional committee elections and onboarding

• Expanding regional hubs and fostering global participation

• Continuing to develop governance support and onboarding resources

Intersect operates as a collaborative, member-driven coordination layer. Every role, whether held by members, elected committees, or contributors, is focused on enabling Cardano to govern and evolve itself.

Reflecting honestly on our journey through 2024, we at Intersect deeply appreciate the invaluable lessons learned and the growth achieved alongside our members and the broader Cardano community. While our first operational year was marked by significant milestones - including the Chang upgrade, operationalizing a Security Council across key repositories (including the core Cardano node), and the drafting of Cardano’s Constitution - we acknowledge that areas such as communication and coordination required improvement. Your candid feedback has been instrumental in guiding our evolution into a more mature, transparent, and service-oriented organization.

As we press ahead in 2025, our commitment remains unwavering: to enhance your membership experience, strengthen democratic processes, and deliver greater support for committees, DReps, and SPOs. Together, with optimism and humility, we will continue facilitating and coordinating initiatives, including implementation of core technical upgrades (where approved), a better member experience, robust governance infrastructure, and comprehensive ecosystem-wide coordination - ensuring Intersect remains a trusted partner and a proud contributor to Cardano’s thriving future.

Q1 key deliverables

• Plomin Hard fork

• On-chain ratification of the constitution

• On-chain approval of Net Change Limit

• On-chain approval(s) of the 2025 budget

• Intersect/CDH 2024 Financial Report

• Preparation for members voting in the April election

• Enhanced members onboarding

• Launch the project incubation program, OSC

• OSC accreditation program

• Quarterly finance and governance reviews/reports

• New CC election plan documented (election guide)

• Teamz event in Tokyo (April 16/17)

• Global series of governance and product workshops

Q2 key deliverables

• Intersect committee elections - APRIL

• Election of the new Constitutional Committee

• Start of the Paid Open Source model

• Cardano vision V1 approved

• Quarterly finance and governance reviews/reports

• Membership renewal campaigns

Q3 key deliverables

• Start the Budget process for 2026 and beyond.

• Open Source fellowship program launched - (fostering development, innovation, and growing dev polls for Haskell)

• The Cardano product roadmap proposal for 2026 is ready

• Hub's presence and support have been expanded to support other regions

• Quarterly finance and governance reviews/reports

• Support the community at RareEvo

Q4 key deliverables

• Intersect committee and Board elections

• 2025 Annual member meeting

• 2026 Annual Budget GA submitted on-chain

• Quarterly finance and governance reviews/reports

• Token 2049

• Approved budget for 2026

• Rise or confirm Net Change Limit for 2026

Intersect costs – $8,500,000

• $6.5M – personnel and contractors (44+ full-time staff via third parties)

• $600K – software (e.g., GitHub, QuickBooks, GitBook, Discord, Zoom, compliance tools)

• $500K – legal and compliance services

• $450K – board services

• $450K – membership acquisition, retention, and marketing

Cardano Development Holdings – $1,500,000

• $500K – member support and engagement services

• $150K – legal services, insurance, and director fees

• $750K – financial custodial services and operations

• $100K – reporting and analytics tools

The Intersect proposal hinges on community participation to deliver against the key challenges for Cardano in 2025.

Intersect currently counts over 2.7k associates who actively participate in over 30 working groups, 1.8k members who both as elected voting seats and as SMEs participate in committees. These are then supported daily by Intersect staff.

Committees currently have:

• Cardano Product Committee: 7 voting members and 15 SMEs

• Cardano Budget Committee: 9 voting members

• Cardano Civics Committee: 9 voting members

• Open Source Committee: 9 voting members

• Technical Steering Committee: 9 voting members

• Membership and Community Committee: 10 voting members

• Intersect Steering Committee: 4 voting members and 8 chairs from other committees

• Growth and Marketing Committee: 8 voting members and 6 SMEs

The Intersect team supporting the members consists of:

• Technical Steering Committee

  • Technical Operation: Lead - Matt Davis; Duncan Soutar
  • Delivery Assurance: Abbie Yeates; Georgia Hutton

• Open Source Committee

  • Open Source Office: Lead - Christian Taylor; Terence McCutcheon

• Budget Committee

  • Operational Services: Exec - Lawrence Clark; Simo Simovic; Michaela Burle-Sore; Gemma Dakin; Marina Ramos; Tayla Dix; Camille Arifon; David Muzzi

• Product Committee

  • Product Curation: Lead - Lorenzo Bruno; Bosko Majdanac; Ryan Williams; Mike Susko; Elena Bardo; Aaron Boyle, Bojan Kocijan

• Membership & Community Committee

  • Membership: Exec - Nick Cook; Hannah Williams; Abhik Nag; Keshav Kunal; Valeria Devaux

  • Membership Tooling: Lead - Igor Velickovic; Bojan Vasiljevic; Domagoj Lovosevic; Nikola Tešović; Vukasin Paunovic; Vukasin Kubet; Nikola Miric; Milan Matejic

• Cardano Civics Committee / Growth & Marketing Committee

  • Ecosystem Governance Support: Exec - Jack Briggs; Larisa McFarlane; Lara Bonsorte; Tim Richmond; Thomas Lindset; Neil Burgess

• Planned recruitment for the remainder of 2025 includes, but may not be limited to:

  • Executive Director

  • Head of Finance

  • Two communications, social media, and/or membership support staff

To support the Intersect team and the committees, there is a Board of Directors composed of:

• Steve Lupien - Chair of the board of Intersect and Director for the Center for Blockchain & Digital Innovation for the University of Wyoming.

• Nikhil Joshi - Chief Operating Officer at EMURGO.

• Gerard Moroney - Chief Operating Officer at IOG.

• Kavinda Kariyapperuma - Intersect Member.

• Adam Rusch - Intersect Member.

The Intersect team is made up of industry experts also coming directly from the Cardano community. The team supports Cardano community experts in the elected committees and participants of working groups.

Executive Team:

• Jack Briggs - Director of Ecosystem Passionate about blockchain technology, Jack started with Bitcoin in 2012, Ethereum in 2017, and joined the Cardano community in 2019. Since 2021, he has been a key contributor to Cardano's governance design. With over a decade of experience leading marketing teams for global brands, Jack now leads Intersect’s marketing and communications efforts.

• Lawrence Clark - Head of Operations Lawrence has experience leading large, complex programs involving regulatory, technology, and business changes managed by remote teams. Lawrence has been a present community member, attending committees and being an essential component of funding projects available to individuals in the Cardano ecosystem.

• Nick Cook - Head of Membership and Community Hubs
  Nick is an experienced, driven and energetic leader with a proven history of working in the Web3, blockchain, fintech and AI space. Nick has played a critical part in establishing community hubs for Intersect, linking the company with the wider Cardano community. His work has been invaluable for engaging members with our broader mission.

Open Source Office:

• Christian Taylor - Head of OSO

• Terence McCutcheon - Open Source Program Manager

Governance Support:

• Larisa McFarlane - Governance Support Manager

• Thomas Lindseth - Constitution Engagement Manager

Ecosystem:

• Lara Bonsorte - Community and Events Manager

• Tim Richmond - Communication Manager

• Neil Burgess - Technical Writer

Technical Operation:

• Matt Davis - Technical Operational Lead

• Duncan Soutar - Delivery Assurance Manager

Delivery Assurance:

• Georgia Hutton - Delivery Assurance Analyst

• Abbie Yeates - Delivery Assurance Manager

Operational Services:

• Simo Simovic - Program Delivery Manager

• Michaela Burle-Sore - Financial Controller

• Gemma Dakin - Community Grants Manager

• Marina Ramos -Procurement Analyst

• Tayla Dix - Procurement Manager

• Camille Arifon - Financial System Manager
  David Muzzi - Operation Program Oversight

Product Curation:

• Lorenzo Bruno - Head of Product Curation

• Bosko Majdanac - Senior Technical Project Manager - govtool

• Ryan Williams- Cardano Tech Lead

• Igor Velickovic - Engineering Tech Lead

• Bojan Kocijan - Senior Product Designer - design systems

• Mike Susko - Principal Product Designer - govtool

• Valeria Devaux - Product Manager

• Elena Bardo - Tooling Technical Analyst

• Aaron Boyle - DevOps Lead

Web team:

• Bojan Vasiljevic - Test Architect

• Domagoj Lovosevic - Product Designer

• Nikola Tešović - Full Stack Developer

• Vukasin Paunovic - Full Stack Developer

• Vukasin Kubet - Frontend Developer

• Nikola Miric - Test Architect

• Milan Matejic - Frontend Developer

Membership and Community Hubs:

• Hannah Williams - Community Hub Lead

• Keshav Kunal - ICT and CRM

• Abhik Nag - Community Manager

The current team at Intersect has founded, launched, and built the organisation from the ground up, delivering so far:

• 2023

  • Intersect was announced in July

  • 1694 workshops supported and CIP-1694 approved for development

• January 2024

  • Intersect launched formal development communication initiatives

  • Initial committee scoping and governance working group structure established

  • CIP-1694 engagement model reviewed in preparation for global rollout

  • Intersect membership growth accelerated across technical and community verticals

  • Open-source principles codified into early working group structures

  • Internal alignment on Intersect’s 2024 objectives completed

• February 2024

  • First development updates launched with community governance focus

  • Early drafts of the Cardano Constitution initiated

  • Committee structure and scope were introduced

  • Community Hubs planning underway

  • Initial CIP-1694 community alignment discussions began

  • Governance framework evaluation initiated across different working groups

  • Initial publication of weekly Intersect development updates

  • Launched GitHub for open-source collaboration and transparency

• March 2024

  • CIP-1694 workshops continued globally with strong community participation

  • GovTool prototype testing began, and early user feedback was collected

  • Emphasis on constitutional awareness and governance education ramped up

  • Intersect community participation increased via workshops and regional events

  • Collaborative planning for Cardano constitution refinement launched

  • Cross-community partnerships initiated through Intersect’s ecosystem dialogues

  • Created development-focused documentation and GitBook workspace

  • Began regular releases of governance tools and governance education content

• April 2024

  • GovTool improvements implemented based on the first feedback round

  • Community Hub model expanded to new regions with pilot events

  • Focus on committee operations and constitutional development processes

  • Documentation and transparency processes for committees formalized

  • Governance simulations piloted to validate voting and DRep workflows

  • Intersect website and newsletter cadence solidified

  • Open-sourced several components of GovTool for external contribution

• May 2024

  • CIP-0069 (budgeting) development updates presented for review

  • Open call for constitutional workshop leaders received wide community interest

  • Hyperledger Foundation membership confirmed to support open-source credibility

  • Launched DRep Pioneer Program to train next-gen governance participants

  • Held targeted DRep onboarding workshops in East Africa and Southeast Asia

  • Intersect-hosted discussions clarified budget cycle phases

  • Tooling working groups updated the core tooling roadmap

• June 2024

  • Constitution and governance discussions advanced through regional workshops.

  • Intersect facilitated community contributions on treasury modeling and budgeting

  • First inter-regional town hall hosted by the Sri Lanka hub

  • Continued GovTool iterations and deeper testing for decentralized voting

  • Early mock votes were conducted within Intersect to prepare for on-chain governance

  • Educational materials for DReps and proposers expanded

• July 2024

  • Cardano Node 9.0 released, initiating Chang Upgrade compatibility testing

  • Intersect Constitutional Council was officially formed and announced

  • Committee governance updates and election procedures published

  • Constitution workshops expanded to new regions, including Latin America and Eastern Europe

  • Intersect hosted core contributor syncs for decentralized product alignment

• August 2024

  • Open Source Committee nominations held and voting initiated

  • Improvements to internal governance processes shared with the community

  • Community engagement sustained via Intersect-hosted town halls and local meetups

  • Training guides for submitting proposals and committee engagement launched

  • Transparent tracking system for Intersect action items introduced

  • Smart contract oversight models introduced for budget execution and enforcement

• September 2024

  • Treasury and budget proposal discussions deepened through member dialogue

  • Workshops and simulations promoted DRep readiness and constitutional literacy

  • Focused workstreams established for 2025 planning across all committees

  • Partnerships expanded with Cardano tooling providers and community groups

  • Mid-year reflection on Intersect’s performance and constitution ratification progress

• October 2024

  • Intersect Board elections began with member-wide participation

  • First Annual Members Meeting held, including roadmap and committee updates

  • Constitutional Committee workshops expanded across multiple languages and regions

  • Community Hubs deepened local outreach efforts and governance onboarding

  • Constitution ratification support content distributed

  • Governance and Funding Committee presented 2025 budgeting methodology

• November 2024

  • Committee elections and board operations refined and documented

  • GovTool roadmap publicly updated with new feature timeline

  • Budget Committee explored ADA treasury cap (early Net-Change-Limit modeling)

  • Year-end reviews began within Intersect to assess 2024 impact

  • Evaluation of governance tooling and smart contract development progress

  • Reports on community hub outcomes and regional governance integration published

  • End-of-year Cardano development report released, summarizing technical and governance progress

• February 2025

  • Draft 2025 ecosystem budget proposals released across Core Development, Research, Governance, Growth, and Innovation

  • Proposal introduced to cap annual Treasury withdrawals at 350 million ADA (Net-Change-Limit)

  • First on-chain governance action launched using Plomin Upgrade

  • Constitutional Council voted YES on the Cardano Constitution

  • Committee election timeline published for all seven Intersect committees

  • LATAM, Europe, and Japan hubs hosted community engagement events

  • Budget Committee reviewed community feedback and committed to process improvements

  • Product Committee submitted the 2025+ Cardano roadmap as an "Info Action"

  • CBIA (Cardano Blockchain Infrastructure Alliance) joined as an enterprise member

  • Global hubs hosted governance events and regional meetups

  • POSM (Paid Open Source Model) launched pilot contribution ladder

  • GameChanger Finance spotlighted for its programmable wallet tool

  • Emurgo achieved key educational milestones; Bloxico maintained DevOps support

• March 2025

  • Intersect Committee Elections officially launched

  • Application window, AMAs, and spotlight sessions announced

  • Committees redefined roles to support but not submit budgets

  • Budget proposal intake form opened to all contributors

  • Governance guidance added to Intersect Knowledge Base

  • DQuadrant spotlighted for GovTool QA and Hydra-Kuber IDE integration

  • Japan and Africa hubs hosted governance-focused events

  • POSM development continued

  • Committee election registration extended to April 11; voting scheduled for April 16–May 7

  • Public dashboard for budget proposals to launch March 31

  • DRep workshops planned to refine proposals for on-chain actions in June–July

  • Ongoing treasury modeling around 350M ADA cap

  • Preparations for Cardano’s first Constitutional Committee elections

  • Civics Committee released 2025 Budget Guidance

• April 2025

  • Final week for committee election registration

  • Over 75 budget proposals published in GovTool for community review

  • Mid-April launch planned for stake-based DRep signaling

  • Net-Change-Limit governance vote active

  • Treasury oversight smart contracts in development (fail-open model with Oversight Committee powers)

  • SundaeLabs and Xerberus leading smart contract build-out

  • 119 applicants registered for committee elections

  • Voting period set for April 16 – May 7

  • AMAs and spotlight sessions scheduled for April and early May

  • Over 100 budget proposals live across categories

  • Stake-based DRep proposal signaling launched in GovTool

  • Orientation sessions and workshops held to review proposals

  • Weekly DRep meetings ongoing

  • Governance Working Group launched to enhance Intersect’s internal structure and processes.

Intersect is structured for long-term sustainability. All governance processes, whilst nascent, are openly documented and maintained by elected committees with ongoing member input. Intersect also supports the emergence of other MBOs to distribute responsibility and expand value across the ecosystem.

Intersect currently supports:

• 1.8k members and 2.7k associates across 74 countries.

• 6 active community hubs across LATAM, Japan, Sri Lanka, Europe, Africa and the USA.

• Over 30 active working groups and eight member-elected committees:

  • Product

  • Civics

  • Open Source

  • Membership & Community

  • Growth & Marketing

  • Budget

  • Technical Steering

The active participation of members across these structures demonstrates wide community participation.

• Continued community participation and governance approvals

• Active collaboration from elected committees, hubs, and stakeholders